Stop! Do not read any further if you are looking for a fast, easy method to grow your congregation! The 40 Days of Purpose Campaign is not for you. If you are considering helping your congregation develop a purpose-driven life you will need to be prepared to set aside one year. It will be a year that will change your life, the life of your congregation and the way all of you live together, share the Christian life together and reach out beyond your church doors.

If you have decided to continue reading, I may have some suggestions that will help you have an awesome experience.

Do you want a congregation where people understand and live out their faith? A congregation where people are living their lives every day with purpose-God's purpose? Then you need to take seriously the 40 Days of Purpose Campaign developed by Rick Warren and now distributed by Purpose Driven Ministries, an independent organization set up by Warren to help churches help churches discover why they are here.

Warren believes there are five reasons we are here on this earth. Until we make those purposes real in our lives, we are falling short of what God has in store for us. Our first purpose is that we were planned to be in a loving relationship with God (Worship): God wants to share his love with everyone, and he wants us to live so that we can receive that love.

Our second purpose is that we were formed for God's Family: God wants to share his love with us as we interact with him in Christian community.

The third purpose is to learn to live our lives the way Jesus would live our lives if he were us-to become like Christ.

Our fourth purpose (Ministry) is to serve God within the community of faith: We were created not to get as much out of life as we can, but to make it better as we serve each other within the Christian Faith. The Bible says, "God has created us for a life of good deeds, which he has already prepared for us to do" (Ephesians 2:10b TEV).

Finally, our fifth purpose is to extend our service to those who do not know Jesus (Mission).

At Byron United Covenant Church in London, Ontario, we are a medium-sized congregation. We have two worship services (traditional and contemporary) on a Sunday morning with an average total attendance of 226 people. About three years ago, we had the sense God had something more in store for us, and we needed to take a step forward in our understanding of who we were and what God wanted for us. The idea of doing the 40 Days of Purpose was agreed on in early February of that year. We registered with Purpose Driven Ministries (PDM) and I recruited a campaign director.

Then we prayed and prayed and prayed. This is the most important thing we did, since it set the tone and foundation for everything else. If you are not willing to literally bathe the whole process in constant prayer, starting with yourself and involving more and more people, then it's not for you. Without prayer, the 40 Days becomes just another program.

When the resource kit arrived, we reviewed the materials and watched the training videos. It is important for the minister and campaign director to read the campaign manual thoroughly. PDM covers everything you must know and do to make the process work.

Finally, we recruited the campaign team.

Don't Do It by Yourself

When the 40 Days were over, the whole team agreed that the whole team was needed. We had blended into one position the coordinators' jobs of three areas. Looking back, we realized we were fortunate that that person survived. Having a complete team gives each coordinator manageable tasks. If you want to fail, run the campaign with a small team.

Don't start the process if you are not going to work the plan from start to finish. We adapted some of the resources to our situation; some we used right from the resource CD and just changed the name. Customize the resources as much as you want, but work the plan and the plan will work for you.

There are expenses beyond the initial registration costs. It is important early in your preparation to have each team submit a budget and get it approved. One way to meet the budget is to approach two or three people in your congregation to be PDL benefactors. You will be surprised who will financially support the process.

Don't be afraid to ask!

The campaign team had lots of questions. The campaign director and I could answer many of them because we were familiar with the overall process. There were still a number of questions we could not answer. The PDM campaign headquarters was there to help us. However, we did not make use of all the help available. Looking back, that was our loss. We missed out on some things that would have made the program run more smoothly.

There is a website available full of added resources and a "frequently asked questions" section that is updated as questions are asked. There are monthly webcasts with the national campaign staff. Each webcast goes more deeply into various campaign issues and clarifies many of them. And there are "real live people" you can talk with (about any problems you are having) via telephone and e-mail. I have never participated in a process where the organizers go to such extremes to make it work for me.

Allow Lots of Time

Even with all the help from the campaign headquarters and the resources provided, if you don't allow lots of time in your pre-campaign planning everything will fall apart. We participated in the October campaign, but we began our planning at the end of May. Yes, you read it right-the end of May! We met weekly until the beginning of the summer and then had three or four check-in meetings. In September we met weekly until the end of the campaign.

The main work was done in the various teams. We learned a lesson here: there is a fine line between making sure the various teams are on track, and micro-management. In spite of the danger, the campaign director must make sure each team is on track and everything is falling into place. The campaign process is like a big puzzle and if all the pieces are not sliding into place at the right time it prevents other components from happening.

If we were doing this again, we would make much better use of what we call e-cycling-keeping in touch via email.

You will have to decide for yourselves how often you need to meet. Once you decide, book all the meetings. People's time is very precious, but make sure that you meet as much as needed.

An interesting thing happened in our meetings: new relationships were formed, both in the campaign team and the individual teams. It has been three years since we did the campaign, and many of those relationships have continued. We laughed a lot. I think that was one of the keys that helped our campaign. Being together was a lot of fun and we knew that somehow God was going to use what we were doing.

I would encourage the campaign team to test drive the campaign. We did not do this. The summer months prevented it from happening. We did, however, read the book, The Purpose Driven Life. I think if we had made the time to run through the campaign together, it would have helped the team get a better feel for the project. We could have worked much of the video viewing into our meetings.

The object of all the pre-campaign work was to have people participate in the 40 Days. This may sound foolish, but if you don't get your people involved, all the work done will be for naught.

We worked hard prior to the campaign to get people excited and involved. Be creative-bulletin announcements, letters to the congregation and dramatic verbal announcements on Sunday mornings. Every leader in the congregation was given information to pass on to all the people in their groups. We had an outdoor sign inviting people to join us and a member who was a printer produced 1,000 door hangers to be delivered to the community.

Our people delivered them in their neighbourhoods. We did not get a lot of people from the community, but two interesting things happened. First, people in the community became more aware of us as a congregation. Second, the people who delivered the door hangers got more excited about the program.

We worked hard to get people involved in the campaign. We sold considerably more than 100 Purpose Driven Life books. Almost everyone who worshiped on a Sunday morning took key chain memory verses to learn (our printer helped with these.) We had ten small groups of eight to ten people and great participation in all the large group events.

We should have had more small groups. God moved most powerfully in them, and it was there people shared what He was doing in their lives as they moved through the process.

We had one man who didn't particularly like the first week. He said if it had been up to him, he would have stopped, but his wife insisted he continue. By the end of the campaign he had experienced a very significant impact on his life. He went on to work with a missions group, and developed a small business in a Third world country, owned and run by the people there.

Day 41

Stephen Covey was right: you need to keep the end in mind. The goal of the 40 Day experience is to have lives changed and continue to change. This is what the campaign refers to as Day 41. You need to keep Day 41 in mind at the very beginning of your pre-campaign. We fell flat on our faces here: it was by pure grace that some of the small groups continued, and some people sought various growth experiences like Alpha, or our Spiritual Gifts and Talents Workshop. I cannot emphasize too strongly the importance of planning for ongoing spiritual development after the campaign.

Be ready to continue small groups after the campaign. For congregations who have always wanted a small group ministry for nurture, support and growth, Day 41 may be the best chance you will have to get this up and running. PDM has developed many resources to help you, including material for the next series of small group meetings. But don't stop with small groups. We missed the opportunity of becoming intentional in rooting people deeper in the faith.

Recruit a team whose job is to prepare for Day 41. This is where the benefit of all your work will be realized. As people continue to grow, they will become more excited about their faith. As they become more excited about their faith they will take seriously all they read in the Purpose Driven Life and they will begin to want to enter into ministry and mission. PDM has developed a small group edition of the Purpose Driven Life materials. Buy this and be ready to have new people who come to your congregation participate in it so that they understand what has been happening.

The PDL process had such a great influence on us that we have reorganized our congregation around the five purposes and developed a strategic plan using them.

It was A lot of hard work to do the 40 Days of Purpose. But Wow! It was worth every second and every penny.

Would I encourage congregations to take it-yes! But remember, it is not intended to be a program. It is a process that is only the beginning of a new stage of growth for a congregation that takes it seriously.

Rev. Arthur Hiley is pastor of Byron United Covenant Church, London, Ontario.